About Me

Friday, April 27, 2018

One of the most
successful movements ever started which has been able to help people
get their lives back together from addiction, is the group known as
Alcoholics Anonymous or AA. By now there are also many other
‘Twelve Step’ groups, as they are called, such as Narcotics
Anonymous, Workaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and
others. The interesting thing is that the Twelve Step program on
which they are based, is basically a summary of the Christian
life. The twelve steps involve admitting that you are powerless
over your problem, whatever it might be; that your life is
unmanageable, that only God (as you understand God) can help you and
so you must turn to him; also that you need to atone for the hurt and
damage that you may have caused others. But the main reason why
these groups have helped so many people is because they are based on
the idea that we need the support of like minded people if we are to
be able to live any kind of way of life.

Our coming to mass on a
Sunday has a very similar thinking behind it. We come together
primarily to worship the Lord, but also because we need the support
of like minded people who also believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Holy One of God. This was exactly why the early Christians began
to come together in each other’s houses, so that they could share
their faith together, listen to the Word of God, receive the Lord
Jesus together in the Eucharist and be encouraged by each other’s
presence and witness. Our approach to coming to mass on Sunday also
makes a big difference. If I tell myself I have to go, we have
immediately given ourselves a mental obstacle. If I think of it as an
encounter with the living God, who wants to meet me and speak to me,
that can make all the difference in the world. What does God want to
say to me? In each mass I can be united to Jesus in the most intimate
way possible by receiving his Body and Blood.

Today we do the same
thing but in a more organised way. But the reason we still come
together is not just because it’s Sunday and we have to go to mass,
but because we need the support of others who believe as we do. We
need to listen to God’s word for guidance and inspiration, so that
we can learn how God wants us to live and most importantly to receive
Jesus in the Eucharist. We are nourished by Jesus himself when we
receive him in Holy Communion and we are intimately united with him
in the most extraordinary way. The Lord knows much better than we do
how much we need this kind of strength and support and that is why he
has set it up for us this way. All of this is for our benefit,
because we need this kind of support.

In the second reading
St. John says that what the Lord asks of us is this: to believe in
the name of Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, and to love one
another. If we can do that much we are doing a lot.

More and more in our
society it becomes obvious that we don’t all believe in the same
thing and that is alright, there is room for everyone. In fact
it is a good thing. But if we are to survive, we need the support of
each other and to know that we are not on our own. We also need
to look out for each other, because that is the practical way of
living out our faith. It is not easy to live as a Christian, but
then it never has been. In the Gospel Jesus says, ‘Cut off
from me you can do nothing.’ If we are serious about following
this way of life, then we must recognise what it is we need. Just
as with someone suffering from an alcohol or drug addiction, if they
want to get well, they need to work the Twelve Step program. It
is the same for us. If we hope to grow as Christians, we need to
stay close to Jesus, to listen to his word, to receive him in the
Eucharist and to love one another. Jesus is our source of life in
every sense. If we wish to remain alive as Christians, we must be
rooted in him. No one else will give us life as He does.

‘I
am the vine, you are the branches... Cut off from me you can do
nothing.’

Friday, April 20, 2018

There
is a Religious sister from Ireland, by the name of Sr. Briege
McKenna. I think she lives in Florida a lot of the time. Sr. Briege
is a sister of St. Clare, whom God has called to an extraordinary
ministry of healing and to priests. She travels all over the world
and many physical miracles have occurred when she has prayed with
people. Everywhere she goes she always draws huge crowds. She has
written a book called Miracles
Do Happen, which is well
worth reading.

Some
years back she was invited on the Oprah Winfrey show, which I’m
sure many of you know is one of the most popular chat shows in
America. It has a viewership of something like 18m. Sr. Briege was
invited on the show to talk about her work and her ministry. Oprah
was asking her about the healings and miracles which often take place
and Sr. Briege was saying that it is through name of Jesus that these
things take place, just like it mentions in today’s first reading.
And then suddenly Oprah said to her, ‘But Sr. Briege isn’t the
name of Jesus just another name. There isn’t really anything
special about it?’ And sister Briege said that in her head all
these alarm bells started going off and she realised that what she
would say next was really crucial. And she said, ‘No, it isn’t
just another name. It is the only name under heaven by which we can
be saved.’ In the first reading today, it says, ‘Of all the names
in the world given to us, this is the only one by which we can be
saved.’ Because the name of Jesus isn’t just another name, just
as Jesus isn’t just another person, and Christianity isn’t just
another religion. Jesus is the Way to God. It is only in Jesus, that
our lives make any sense. Without him we are just creatures with no
purpose.

God
calls us to share in his own divine life. We are getting ready to be
with God forever. God has created us in his image, meaning He has
given us the gift of free will and the ability to love. That is why
we have such dignity, such worth, as people. God has also called us
to share in his life and that’s what makes us very different from
any other creature that God has made.

Many
people around us, many of the people we love, are living as if this
life was the only one and so many have become selfish and greedy,
because they are trying to find fulfillment in this world. Nothing
this world can give us will ever make us completely happy, because
God has made us in such a way that we will only be complete in him.
We will only find true fulfillment in him and Jesus is, you could
say, the doorway, to God. That is what this Gospel reading is about.
It’s about Jesus bringing all people to himself, which he will do.
It says in the letter to the Philipians, ‘All creatures, in the
heavens, on earth and under the earth will bend the knee at the name
of Jesus, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord…’
One day, all people will recognise that Jesus Christ is the Lord.

But
what do we mean when we say that we are ‘saved’ by Jesus? Saved
from what? Saved from the emptiness of what the world offers. Saved
from the destructive power of sin and of evil. Saved from loneliness,
and saved especially from meaninglessness. Only in God does this life
make any sense. We do not make sense without him. The very name of
Jesus means, ‘who saves’.

We
are all destined to go to heaven. That is what we have been created
for. That is what God has planned for us. If we reject God, then we
get hell, which is the complete loss of God and all that that would
mean. But it is one or the other, there is no where else. There
is no neutral ground. And so we must choose for Jesus, because he is
the way to God.

Imagine
if the Pope was suddenly to visit this church, right now. Wouldn’t
you love to be able to shake his hand? Wouldn’t you feel privileged
if you could? The Pope isn’t going to be here, but Jesus is. And
Jesus will do more than shake your hand. He will come to us in such a
way that we can take him into ourselves, in Holy Communion. Don’t
trade him for useless wealth that will not bring you happiness. Jesus
is the one who will fulfil us. Only in Jesus does our life make
sense.

‘Of
all the names in the world given to us, this is the only one by which
we can be saved.’

Friday, April 13, 2018

Several
times I’ve had the opportunity to go to Medjugorje (the place in
Bosnia Herzegovnia where Our Lady has allegedly been appearing since
1981) on pilgrimage. Once when I was there I heard the
visionary named Ivanka describe the experience she had when Our Lady
told her she would no longer be appearing to her on a daily basis,
but only once a year. Before the vision finished she asked Ivanka if
there was anything she would like her to do for her. Ivanka asked Our
Lady if she could see her mother again. Her mother had died just a
few months before the apparitions had begun. In Ivanka’s own words
she says that just after she asked this of Our Lady suddenly her
mother was in front of her and she was able to talk to her and hug
her. Her mother told her that she was really proud of her and to be
obedient to what her grandmother told her. At the end of this
testimony Ivanka said, ‘I am living proof that heaven exists. I saw
my mother and spoke with her several months after she died.’ To
listen to Ivanka recall this experience in her own words was very
moving and watching her tell this story it is certainly hard to doubt
it.

In
today’s Gospel we hear another account of Jesus suddenly appearing
to the disciples after the resurrection. To help them believe that
what they were seeing was real Jesus does a beautiful and very human
thing. He eats something in front of them. He takes a piece of fish
from them and puts it in his mouth, chews it and swallows it. He
wanted them to be convinced that they weren’t dreaming. This helped
them to believe that this was the same Jesus with real flesh and
blood that they had lived with for three years, a bit like Ivanka
being allowed to speak with and hug her mother. They were left in no
doubt after that.

Another
interesting thing that Jesus did this time was to help the disciples
understand that everything that had taken place—his suffering,
death and resurrection—made sense. He showed them that the prophets
had foretold it and that the Scriptures referred to it and then he
said to them, ‘So you see how it was written that the Christ
would suffer and on the third day rise again...’ In other words he
was saying that all the events that had taken place, which were so
horrifying and disillusioning for them, had their place. They were
meant to happen and they fitted into God’s plan for the world. That
was something that took the disciples a while to get their heads
around, as suffering never makes sense to any of us. So Jesus had to
help them understand not only that he was alive, but that all that
had taken place was meant to happen.

All
of us are continually faced with difficult situations of suffering.
Sometimes it is suffering that we ourselves go through, such as
sickness or relationships breaking up, and sometimes it is watching
people dear to us suffer, like when someone we love dies. It never
seems to make sense and it always seems unfair. We find ourselves
crying out, ‘How can God do this to me? Why does God allow this?’
When I worked in a hospital as a chaplain I remember often hearing
people ask me, ‘Why has God done this to me?’ So often we cannot
make sense of why we have to suffer and we may even see it as a
punishment.

Even
though we don’t have a direct answer to this question, what Jesus
says to his disciples in this Gospel is a help, because it reminds us
that everything that happens fits into God’s bigger plan. The
struggles we go through don’t make sense to us and sometimes they
may even be caused by the wrong-doing of others. How could this be
part of God’s plan, we ask? The point is that God can bring good
out of every situation, even situations of evil, but for the most
part we cannot see that. We are just faced with each individual
situation of suffering and that is hard. However, the Lord is telling
us that there is a bigger picture which makes sense of everything
that happens. When we die we will then see that picture and it will
all make sense to us.

St.
Pius of Pietrelcina—better known as Padre Pio—used the analogy of
a tapestry. He said that our life is like a tapestry in God’s
hands. We are looking at it from the back, like a child looking up at
it while her mother works at it. All the child can see is the various
bits of string hanging out, but seen from the other side, the
Creator’s side, it is a beautiful work of art. So much of what we
go through makes no sense to us, but the Lord asks us to trust that
He knows what He is doing. One day when we see the tapestry from the
right side, we will see the beautiful picture that the Lord has
created.

So
you see how it was written that the Christ would suffer and on
the third day rise again...

Sunday, April 1, 2018

There
is an extraordinary line in St. Matthew’s account of the passion.
During the trial of Jesus, because there is conflicting evidence
against him which is of no use to them, the High Priest eventually
asks Jesus directly: “I
put you on oath by the living God to tell us if you are the Christ,
the Son of God.”

And
Jesus answered:

“The
words are your own. Moreover, I tell you that from this time
onward you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the
Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mt 26:63-64).

In
other words, Jesus says “Yes I am the Son of God.” For
Jesus to make a claim like that he must have been either a liar,
insane, or he was telling the truth, because it is an extraordinary
thing to say. We believe it was the truth and that is exactly
who Jesus is, not just a holy man, or a prophet, but the Son of God.

In
the book of Revelation, or Apocalypse, St. John the disciple of Jesus
who stood at the cross, recalls a vision he had where a man appeared
to him. He says that he saw what seemed to be a man. His
hair was white as wool, or snow. His eyes were like fire.
His skin was like shining bronze and out of his mouth came a
double-edged sword. He says that he was so afraid when he saw
this that he fell down as if dead. Then this person or being
that he saw touched him and said

“Do
not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the living one.
I was dead and now I am to live forever and ever and I hold the keys
of death and of the underworld” (Rev
1:17b-18).

Who
was this person? It was of course Jesus, risen from death.
Not just the Jesus whose name we so often hear used carelessly as a
swear word, but Jesus who is the Son of God. Now John, who had
this vision, had known and lived with Jesus for at least three years,
so why would Jesus appear to him in such a terrifying way?
Perhaps to remind him and us of who Jesus really is, that is, the Son
of God.

From
a human point of view Good Friday is the ultimate sign of despair.
Everything falls apart and everyone is devastated. There is a
terrible miscarriage of justice and Jesus, the one everyone was
putting their hope in is tortured in a very savage way and killed.
Even Jesus on the cross feels abandoned by God. He is not
actually abandoned by God but that is how he feels and he cries out
“My God, my God why have you abandoned me.” The ultimate
suffering is to feel that we have been abandoned even by God.
From a human point of view it couldn’t get any worse.

Then
we have the silence of Holy Saturday when Jesus is in the tomb.
People are in shock, numb from what has happened and not sure what to
do next. And then we come to Easter Sunday, the opposite of
Good Friday and the ultimate symbol of hope. The unimaginable
happens and rumours start to spread that Jesus is alive. ‘But
that is impossible!’ many said. Most of the disciples would not
believe it initially, yet that is what happened. From a human
point of view it is impossible and naive to think such a thing could
be possible, but there is more than human work here. The power
of God has brought about something extraordinary which no human mind
can take in. This is what God has made known to us.

The
reason Easter is the ultimate symbol of hope is because now the worst
thing imaginable, which is death, is no longer permanent. God
has opened a doorway for us to something wonderful when we die, so
that we can see and be with our loved ones again. Think of the
people you love who are dead. Without Easter they could not
experience happiness now and neither could we when we die. So
now our life has greater purpose than just what happens here and that
gives us a greater hope than anything else. Now we have reason
to keep going even when things are difficult. Now we are given
purpose and we have a better sense of what our life is about; that
is, our journey that will lead us to God if we remain open to it.

“Do
not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the living one.
I was dead and now I am to live forever and ever and I hold the keys
of death and of the underworld.”